He was two years old and had just arrived at the SPCA from a kill shelter. He was the first cat I looked at at the shelter and even though I looked at literally every cat they had up for adoption, I knew he was the one.

2.

I named him Bones, after Dr. McCoy from Star Trek.

His name at the shelter was Smokey. Other names I considered: Steve Holt and Spock.

3.

He has a permanent milk mustache which is endlessly hilarious and adorable.

4.

If you look closely, he has very faint stripes on his paws.

5.

He spends most of his time in this giant cardboard cat tower that we built out of our old moving boxes and duct tape.

That's him sticking his head out of the third floor.

6.

He looks dapper af in a bow tie.

But he eventually learned how to take it off.

7.

If he fits, he sits.

8.

On the day we moved from NJ --> Baltimore we found out he had bladder stones because he peed blood all over the car.

This is a picture of him at the pet ER after a 5 hour drive, being allowed out in the new apartment for about an hour, then being shoved back into his carrier and hauled to the pet ER for a series of fun urinalysis tests. It took an expensive RX diet and a year and a half to get the bladder stones under control. He is now bladder stone free!

9.

You can tell when the heat has kicked on in the apartment because he steals all of it.

10.

He refuses to sit on laps. He only wants to sit with his face as close to your face as possible.

11.

His favorite toy is this fuzzy mouse thing on the end of a guitar string.

He's not always great at catching it though.

12.

He has a heart murmur which means lots of trips to the vet and yearly cat echocardiogram checkups.

He has better healthcare than I do, tbh.

13.

He has a very serious I AM CONCERNED ABOUT THAT NOISE face.

14.

Actually, he just has a very expressive face in general.

15.

Very. Very. Expressive.

16.

When he lies on his back like this, he NEVER wants belly rubs.

It's a trap. He WILL bite you.

17.

But, despite the heart murmur and the bladder stones and the literally biting the hand that feeds him...

18.

...and even though his favorite place to sit is usually directly in front of the thing I need to look at...